I believe it is ethical to target the uninformed consumer. Let me state up front that this does not mean targeting such consumers with lies; dishonesty is unethical. What it means that whether a consumer is informed or not is not relevant to the role of the marketer, for a couple of important reasons. The first is that it is beyond the scope of the marketer to understand for certain whether someone is informed or not. To determine the ethics of a marketing action based on whether nor that action targets the informed necessarily relies on knowing the target's level of knowledge. In the vast majority of cases, one simply cannot know, and the cost to ascertain such level of knowledge would make the act of marketing cost prohibitive. In the real world, all the marketer can do is to target the target market, and maintain honesty and integrity with the messaging. If anything,...
Certainly, the sales person does, in ascertaining the needs of the target and then informing the target about the merits of the product or service being sold. The consumer still retains the right to judge for himself or herself whether the product solves his/her problems.
Cigarettes became popular among World War soldiers as "soldier's smoke (Randall 1999)." Camel held 45% of the U.S. cigarette market by 1923 while Philip Morris produced women's cigarette, described as "mild as May." The American Tobacco Company produced Lucky Strike for women and captured 38% of the market. The number of female teenage smokers increased three times between 1925 and 1935 alone. In the spirit of competition, the American Tobacco
Marketing is a multi-faceted discipline within business that incorporate a wide number of theories, philosophies and techniques. All are geared towards a simple objective -- to increase sales. This paper will examine some of the key issues in marketing today. These include the relevance of sales people using a push strategy, ethics in advertising, public relation and publicity and the expectations that a business might have of a sales professional.
This is why those service providers to other businesses often stress customer results in the core industries they compete in. These customer successes show the depth of expertise in a given area. These success stories make services tangible to customers. Marketing strategies used to support this approach include the widespread use of video and interactive online materials to show the problems solved and results delivered with a service. The
However, there are often no rules, or weak ones, and that can create an ethical dilemma on the part of marketers. They must decide for themselves what lines they want to cross, and set their own codes of ethics. Where rules only provide guidelines, these can be open to interpretation. As we have seen with the area of marketing to children, however, the marketing industry has kept ahead of the
Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid Ethical issues: 7 Social Issues: 7 Market Opportunity: 8 Value for underprivileged: 8 The underdeveloped countries are becoming major emerging markets with a huge potential based on the large populations. The large corporations operating in developed markets also expand in international markets. The multinational companies operating in under developed and developing countries also look for opportunities in the market through a different approach. The key question that needs
Fox, R.F. (2001, November). Warning Advertising May Be Hazardous to Your Health: Ads Pose a Threat to Physical, Emotional, Social, and Cultural Well-Being. USA Today, Volume 130, Issue 2678, 62. The author discusses different types of advertising and promotion and finds ethical problems in the way many are handled, especially with reference to advertising and promoting goods and services to children. He cites the use of focus groups for toy companies
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